Books on Latin America: University of Texas Press

For those of us with a special interest in Latin America and notably in Mexico, the University of Texas Press has a special importance. Admittedly, its Spring-Summer 2002 catalog gets off to a bad start for me. It features a book about the painter Wilfredo Lam, the Cuban-Afro-Chinese member of the International Avant-Garde, which I view as proof of the decadence of the modern world. However, after that the catalog is a delight. Here are for me the highlights: Daniel Arreola, Tejano South Texas, describes the area where Jaqui White lives. Richard Flores, Remembering the Alamo, is very pertinent to our discussion of the conflicting American and Mexican versions of that story. Elizabeth Fox and Silvio Waisbord, Latin Politics, Global Media, is very closely related to our interest in globalization and the media. The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico describes the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City, which I have never visited. It is a guide to art treasures which will be on view in 2002-3 in Houston, Winterthur (Delaware), and San Diego. In the Americas generally, history has been written by the heirs of independence, with the resultant neglect of the achievements of the colonial period, the subject of this book. A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology. Religion and Justice consists of twelve essays on "Latina feminist theology", which should include something on the exclusion of women from the Catholic priesthood. My old friend John W.F. Dulles has written a two-volume biography of Sobral Pinto, The Conscience of Brazil. This reformer (1893-1991), described in "the most consistently forceful opponent od dictator Getulio Vargas". is little known outside Brazil. The whole family of John Foster Dulles has played a key role in American foreign policy. I wonder what Eisenhower's famous Secretary of State thought of Vargas? Nuevo León in Mexico was a haven for converted Jews fleeing the Inquisition. The incredible stories told about them are the subject of Marie Theresa Harenández, Delirio--The Fantastic, the Demonic and the Réel. The Buried History of Nuevo León. In Staying Sober in Mexico City, Stanley Brandes of UC Berkeley tells how Alcoholics Anonymous, an outgrowth of evangelical Protestantism, has attracted w wide following in Mexico City among repentant drunks. The WAIS debate about bullfighting showed that the vast majority view it as barbaric. They will therefore be less than enthusiastic about a new edition of the "classic" (?) novel by Tom Lea, The Brave Bulls. Since 1979 (volume 41), the University of Texas Press has published the important Handbook of Latin American Studies.

WAIS is concerned about the downgrading of geography in American universities. Gregory Knapp,a geographer at Austin, describes the achievements of geographers in Latin America in the Twenty-First Century. The University of Texas Press publishes the Yearbook of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers.

I have stressed the forthcoming publications of the University of Texas Press in the Latin American field, but its interests are much broader. I visited the scholar-writer Robert Graves in Mallorca, a fascinating figure who is the subject of Frank Kersnowski, The Early Poetry of Robert Graves. The Goddess Beckons. One reason I left the University of British Columbia to come to Stanford was that then it had no interest in Latin America. It did not even teach Spanish. Now it has a distinguished historian, good WAISer Robert Barman. That UBC's interests have developed also in classical and feminist studies is evident in James A. Evans, The Empress Theodora, Partner of Justinian.

What a cornucopia of books! Excuse my mixed mythology. Cornucopia was a horn of the goat Amalthea, which accidentally (?) broke off. The goat had supplied milk to Zeus, who, when the horn broke off, kept it everlastingly full of food and drink. No books. Zeus could not even read. Justinian could, and he had no use for Zeus. Progress!!

Ronald Hilton - 12/27/01